The European Channel Leadership Forum is a unique 2 day conference. It brings together leading CEOs from European VARS and MSPs to discuss pressing issues, technologies and developments facing the industry, and also to network with no agenda.

A survey conducted by CRN in June 2018 reveals why some resellers are embracing propositions with enthusiasm and driving customer migration, while others are resisting the increasingly intense pull of the cloud.

To grow, to remain relevant to the customers, and to remain profitable, IT channels (in all their forms) will have to master a number of business model transformations in the cloud and digital transformation era. Read more to learn about the key transformations that IT channels will need to address, in order to bring new capabilities to customers and be successful in the future.

Des Lekerman, chief executive of TIG, told CRN: "We are automating a lot of manual processes as it is an easy way to a build disaster recovery offering, and following on from that we have built our own app that backs up Azure databases and files.

"Now we can do a healthcheck, discovery and migrate customers to Azure, and also do the same with Office 365. Customers cannot get enough of it; it is flying off the shelves, so to speak."

Lekerman said the core customer base for TIG has been the 100 to 2,000-seat mid-market sector and added that customer interest in the cloud is ramping up. "We are having a lot of conversations around the hybrid cloud, and adding SaaS applications around that. For us it is about creating value and building out-of-the-box solutions that customers can take away with them and just use," he said.

He added that the app had taken 12 months to build, and allows TIG to give customers a breakdown of everything they need. "We have recruited people to develop this app and we have invested in it. These days you cannot just be an implementor - you have to add value."

The journey to the cloud is definitely starting to get faster but customers are also getting wiser, Lekerman said. "The speed of change has been phenomenal and the industry is moving so quickly," he added. "Customers are thinking twice about spending money; they are not going to hand over tens of thousands of pounds to an IT consultant for migration - they want to know if their system is predictable, whether it can be replicated. The channel needs to be able to show it can add real value these days."